Public intellectual Quentin Skinner discusses his view on liberty, how freedom relates to democracy, and whether there are limits to liberty in representative government. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of the Cambridge School of the History of Political Thought.

📚 REFERENCES

Quentin Skinner, Liberty as Independence: The Making and Unmaking of a Political Ideal (Cambridge University Press, 2025)

Quentin Skinner: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/history/people/emeritus-academic-staff/profiles/skinnerquentin.html

Isaiah Berlin, “Two Concepts of Liberty”, in Four Essays on Liberty (Oxford, 1969).

Annelien de Dijn, Freedom: An Unruly History (Harvard University Press, 2022)

Andrea Lorenzo Capussela, The Republic of Innovation: A New Political Economy of Freedom (forthcoming with Polity, 2025)

Era Dabla-Norris and Davide Furceri, “Debt is Higher and Rising Faster in 80 Percent of Global Economy”, IMF Blog (29.05.2025), https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2025/05/29/debt-is-higher-and-rising-faster-in-80-percent-of-global-economy (Accessed 06.08.2025)

🔗 LINKS

• Website ↗ http://www.intellectualhistory.net/roots-and-branches  

• Instagram ↗ @roots_and_branches_podcast

• X ↗ @rbpod_ih

• Selma Sondern ↗ www.linkedin.com/in/selma-sondern

🎶 MUSIC

'A New Year' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au